1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a medical utility storage assembly that can be utilized in a hospital operating room for receiving and storing reusable medical equipment and more particularly to a rigid mounting member that can be mounted on a vertical support member for suspending a washable main storage bag mounting removable sub-storage bags to secure and store reusable medical equipment and supply items for subsequent cleaning, sterilization and recommissioning for use.
2. Description of Related Art
In operating rooms in surgical centers, hospitals and medical offices, various types of relatively expensive reusable medical equipment are utilized in an operation procedure. For example, anesthesia face masks are commonly used for a patient and they can be subsequently cleaned and sterilized for reuse. Another example of reusable equipment is a laryngoscope blade that can incorporate white halogen lamps. Laryngoscopes and other such reusable equipment and/or medical supplies are relatively expensive pieces of equipment that must be cleaned and sanitized for reuse.
Generally, operating rooms have not established an optimum protocol nor storage equipment for the securing of such medical items, their storage during and after the operation, and their transport from the operating room to another location where proper care can be given to refurbishing and sanitizing such medical equipment.
Usually, a medical operating room will include a utility hamper mounted on a wheeled cart for soiled sheets and other soiled drapes which are then transported to a utility linen closet for subsequent transportation to a laundry or to a transport truck and then to a commercial laundry. Also, a container or a support vessel lined with a "red" plastic bag is usually available for soiled/contaminated disposable plastic, paper and metal items that are utilized during an operation.
As a result, contaminated and reusable small medical equipment and supplies are frequently placed on any readily available surface within an arm's reach of the anesthesiologist, or other operating room surgical personnel, once the items have been used on the patient. As a result, these pieces of equipment and reusable plastic and metal medical supply items are sources of contamination and they are subject to being mistakenly discarded with other disposable metal, plastic and paper items at the end of the surgical procedure.
While it may be conceived that duplicating the utility hamper would be a potential solution for this prior art problem, the realities of the operation room are counter to this solution. There is a relatively cramped space with a significant amount of sophisticated equipment, hoses, lines and wires, surrounding the patient, in addition to intravenous (IV) poles with their attached IV pumps with various tubing extending from the pumps to the patient's arms and other IV sites. As can be appreciated, the anesthesia machine, the various monitoring equipment, surgical equipment, and so forth, make the addition of another wheeled device difficult to accommodate in a normal operating room. Additionally, if a second portable hamper on wheels was introduced, the same personnel may confuse this hamper with either the linen hamper or the contaminated refuse hamper, and the possibility of the destruction and discarding of expensive reusable medical items would further increase. The realities of a medical operating room are that the patient should be the prime focus of the attention of the doctors and support personnel and they should not be burdened with extraneous decision making responsibilities.
As a result, the prior art is seeking a solution to this problem, particularly given the economic demands that are being placed upon hospitals and medical facilities in reducing the high cost of health care.